Disposable feminine hygiene articles, which are understood herein to include sanitary napkins, pantiliners, and incontinence pads, feature a main body portion comprising an absorbent material mounted on an impervious backing sheet, the main body portion being bounded by a peripheral edge. (As used herein, "peripheral edge" refers to the extreme outside edge of the main body, however that edge happens to have been formed.) Frequently, such articles further include attachment wings or flaps contiguously extending from said backing sheet from opposite sides thereof. Because portions of both the backing sheet and the wings support adhesive areas, when the article is placed with the backing sheet in contact with one side of the crotch area of an undergarment, and the wings are wrapped around the other side of the crotch area, the two opposing adhesive areas hold the article in proper location on both sides of the undergarment.
Such wings are either contiguous extensions of the backing sheet, in which case they hinge and fold primarily about said peripheral edge of the main body portion, or, they are hingedly attached to the backing sheet along a fold line located inside the peripheral edge of the main body portion, hereinafter, "backattached". A preferred manner of constructing the latter is to form the wings as a contiguous extension of the backing sheet, and then to fold them about the peripheral edge and adhesively secure a portion of the wing to a portion of the backing sheet inside the peripheral edge. This is preferred because it biases the wings to fold back towards the main body portion, exactly as the user does when wrapping the wings about an interposed undergarment. It has been found that such a bias renders easier the wrapping of the wings about the undergarment. Indeed, in the absence of the bias so provided, the wings may have a tendency to unfold and pull their adhesive areas off the undergarment.
Nevertheless, the helpful bias noted above has its own disadvantage. The adhesive areas on both the backing sheet and the wings are temporarily covered by release paper until the user is ready to install the article. However, once the release paper is removed, if the adhesive area of a wing inadvertently contacts directly the adhesive area of the backing sheet, the two stick together so well (in the absence of the intended undergarment), that they cannot be pulled apart without damaging the article. The noted bias of the wings towards the backing sheet has the disadvantage of making such inadvertent contact more, rather than less, likely.
Thus, there has been a need prior to this invention to prevent wing adhesive areas from sticking to the adhesive areas of the backing sheet, particularly when the wings are made by folding them about the peripheral edge and adhesively secured to the backing sheet to create the bias.